Early next year, the boosters will be mated with NASA's last-remaining, built-for-flight space shuttle external tank (ET-94), which has been parked in Exposition Park since 2016. Space shuttle Endeavour is lifted into the sky, takes final position as star of new museum wing. The retired Space Shuttle Endeavour external tank, ET-94, the last flight-qualified liquid hydrogen external tank, is hanged vertically from a massive crane to be moved into a 20-story vertical. They were the first major components to be taken vertical as part of the science center's "Go for Stack" campaign. The SRBs going on exhibit with Endeavour were assembled from all flight-worthy or previous launched parts as donated by Northrop Grumman and NASA. Huge rocket motors arrive at Los Angeles museum for space shuttle Endeavour display Shuttle Endeavours giant orange fuel tank hoisted up at California Science Center, but winds delay. After falling away from the external tank, the frustums were jettisoned and recovered separately. Space shuttle Endeavour rolls toward its new display pavilion at the California Science Center in Los Angeles in the final stretch of its three-day, 12-mile (19 km) 'Mission 26' journey. In flight, the forward assemblies held the avionics, forward separation motors and drogue and main parachutes for each booster. 4), followed by the port, or left-side, rocket on Tuesday (Dec.
The starboard, or right-side, booster was completed on Monday (Dec. (Image credit: California Science Center) Workers complete the installation of a forward assembly atop one of the solid rocket boosters for the launchpad-like exhibit of NASA's retired space shuttle Endeavour. Standing atop metal and wood scaffolding, workers then secured the hardware by inserting 195 one-inch-diameter (2.54-centimeter) metal pins. Just one month after crane operators hoisted into place the large segments for the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), they were back in motion this week topping off the towering rockets with the forward assemblies.Ĭomprised of a nose cap, frustum, ordnance ring and forward skirt, each 27-foot-tall (8.2-meter), 10,000-pound (4,500-kilogram) assembly was raised from the street and lifted more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) into the air before being lowered onto a booster. The work to stand up two rockets for the launchpad-like exhibit of NASA's retired space shuttle Endeavour has been capped - literally and figuratively - with the addition of two nose cones.Īs the California Science Center prepares to take Endeavour off public display for the next few years, the first major components for the orbiter's vertical exhibit are now complete at the construction site for the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex were unsurprising choices.